From what I've heard from low-level employees, HR was basically entirely automated some years ago and the HR staff existed as a kind of helpdesk to solve exceptions. A simple example I heard is that employees are automatically fired after 3 days of unexcused absences, but occasionally an employee's doctor's note somehow doesn't excuse their absences, so they get an e-mail saying they are fired, call a phone number in the footer of the e-mail to talk to HR and open a ticket, and HR marks their absences as excused and unfires them.
Nothing says “Human” Resources like automated firings.
I would hope if I had an unexcused absence my boss would be calling to make sure I was alive, and not just wait for the robots to fire me so it’s no longer his problem.
Of course I’m looking at this from a white collar position with 20 years in a company. Maybe for high turnover warehouse positions where a lot of people simply stop showing up, it’s a different story. I can’t see anyone caring about doing a good job when the company cares so little about the humans who work there. It’s quite dystopian.
